Electron discharge device



Jan. 11, 1938. E. WIEGAND Er A1.

ELECTRON DSCHARGE DEVICE Filed Nov. 14, 1955 R DEH. DNYC 1. mAEmm f \EL TUJLMF Wn www V WP wia ILN RIA EWH s w H Patented Jan. 11, 193s.. 2,104,784

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,104,784 ELECTION DISCHARGE DEVICE Erich Wiegan Berlin-Waldmannslnst, Wilfried Meyer, Birkenwerder, near Berlin, and liana Pnlirich, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany, assignors to Allgemeine Elektricitats Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany, a corporation of Germany Application November 14. 1935, Serial No. 49,850 In Germany November 24, 1934 6 Claims. (Cl. 250-27.5)

It has been proposed in the manufacture of inasmuch as the reducing burning or iiring does electric discharge devices to substitute ceramic not appreciably aiiect or change their mechanical materials for the glass or glass materials hereto properties, the ensuing bodies are readily united fore used for making the walls of the devices, on with other ceramic bodies, especially of the kind the ground this insures greater strength and temwhich have been made by oxidizing burning of a 5 perature stability. The use of ceramics moreover similar batch or mixture. A body partly conductmakes it feasible to give the tubes forms which ing may be united with non-conducting ceramic are not possible with glass. However, metallic bodies. A ceramic body made from a mixture parts when used for lead-ins or seals in the walls comprising titanium oxide and magnesium oxide 10 and when united with ceramic materials, do not as stated may also be fused with soft glass. 10 provide satisfactory gas-tight joints. It is pro- Whenever it proves necessary to further diposed to use conducting bodies or materials other minish the electric resistance of conducting cerathan metallic conductors, and which will be capamic parts. then a metallic coating may be apble or being united with ceramic materials in a plied upon the surface thereof. Such a coating gas-tight manner. may be produced, for example, by electrolytic 15 According to the invention, ceramic bodies conmethods. However, the preferable procedure is taining low metallic oxides such as cadmium oxto apply a metallic paste prior to baking, and to ide, uranium oxide, titanium oxide, and which thereupon cause the metallic paste to sinter on. are partly conducting for electricity, are used in Coatings of this sort may be provided also upon lieu oi metal. The conductivity of .such ceramic the ceramic parts for fastening the electrodes. 20 bodies need be only as high as may be necessary 'I'he annexed drawing by way of example shows for the operation of the tube. Incorporated in a number of exempliiied embodiments of ceramic the conducting oxides may be ceramic insulators construction oi the kind here disclosed. In the such as quartz, or aluminum oxide or silicate. drawing:

The low metallic oxides, especially titanium ox- Figures 1 and 2 show conductive pins sealed in 25 ide having an oxygen content ranging between the wall of anenvelope.'` T102 and TiO have proved successful, while the Figures 3, 4, and 5 show lead-in conductors reninsulator may consist preferably of magnesia. Esdered conductive only on their surfaces,

pecially suitable is a mixture with a molecular ra- Figure 6 shows a cathode body embodying this tio between magnesium and titanium of 2: 1. The invention, y 30 resistivity of a conductor consisting of magnesia Figures 1 and 8 show electrode structures em..

and titaniumvoxide with a molecular ratio of 2 to bodying this invention, and

1 between the magnesium and titanium 0f 1 Figure 9 shows an electron discharge device square centimeter in cross-sectional area and 1 constructed in accordance with this invention,

centimeter in length, depending on the iiring Figure 1 shows at I a ceramic pin or rod1et 35 temperature, will be 1 Ohm or less. These bodies which is brought through a plate 2 comprising, for are of blue color and are extremely firm and solid example, the wall of an electron discharge tube and resistant to temperature fluctuations. envelope such a shown in Figure 9. The said pin In making conducting ceramic bodies, the consists of ceramic material possessing electric molded mixture is red either in an oxidizing and conductivity, of, for example, partially reduced 40 then in a reducing atmosphere, or else only in a titanium oxide and magnesium oxide. The plate reducing atmosphere. The bodies become con- 2 is non-conducting and is preferably made of ductive by virtue of the elimination'of oxygen by the same mixture, that is to say, of titanium reducing burning. By suitable shaping of the ceroxide and magnesia, by burning or baking in an amic bodies and by employing oxidizing and the oxidizing atmosphere. The pin and plate are 45 reducing gases during baking process in a suitunited by means of a glass ilux or bya ceramic able way, it is possible to obtain bodies which material I which will readily sinter. Pin I servwill be partly conducting and partly insulating or ing as a current supply lead may be shaped at conducting only along the surface of the bodies. one end to function as a base contact member The baking temperature required to insure suitaand at the opposite end as a support' for the 50 ble density of the conductor for gas imperviousinternal structure or electrode assembly of the ness is above 1000 degrees C. For a mixture of titube. Electrode support 4 may be attached to tanium oxide and magnesia as indicated, a tema metallic.ring 5 at the inner end of the pin. perature ranging between around i400 and 1500 Figure 2 shows a modiiied embodiment of the degrees C. will be required. current supply lead of Figure 1. Here, only the 55 reduced, then, if the 25.

` aid of a readily sintering ceramic substance l is ,removed so the heater may be bottom end of the pin is treated in a reducing atmosphere so that only the plug part, the portion fused in the plate and a short portion above the plate 2, are conducting. The nonreduced end l located inside the discharge vessel may then be used for insulatingly -carrying an electrode support 1. The voltage brought into the discharge vessel by way oi' the pin is applied to ring 5 located as shown. A pin of this kind may advantageously be made by subjecting the entire pin to a reducing treatment, whereupon the top end 8 may be oxidized again in an open flame, the remainder of the pin being protected against the oxidizing name.

By suitable treatment with reducing gas it is possible to cause only superficial reduction of the ceramic body. Exemplied embodiments of bodies thus treated are shown in Figures 3, 4, and 5. Figure.3 shows a ceramic plate 2 which supports a cup-shaped member. I. This cup is substantially thinner in its bottom s than in the side walls thereof. If in such a cup, the inside is depth of the reduced layer be suitably chosen, conduction of current from.

the inside to the outside will be feasible since the bottom 9 of the wall thickness. Figure 4 shows a similar embodiment of current-supply lead in which the cup I Il is integral with the ceramic plate.

Figure 5 shows a cup li which has been reduced on its inside and outside surfaces and whose lower surface has been ground away as far as the inner conducting layer. It is possible to apply to the two surfaces of this cup, which are separated by the intermediate insulating layer, potentials of different value and to thus combine in a tube two concentric current-supply leads. The cup shown in Figure 5 is brought through a ceramic insulation plate 2.

Electrodes may be fashioned from conducting ceramic substances as here disclosed.

Figure 6 illustrates a cathode body which may form part of the envelope wall. Fitted in a vacuum-tight manner in the ceramic plate 2 by the the cathode tube I2. 'Ihe tube is superiicially A cathode connection may be made exteriorly of the envelope to the outwardly projecting part of the tube. Heater element I2 is fitted into the tube and supported by a bottom closure plate il. The plate may be readily replaced. Figure 7 shows a grid for arc rectiers comprising a curved tube structure of hollow conducting ceramic material adapted to be chilled 0n the inside by a current of water. Grids used in hot-cathode discharge vessels may be of spiral form to surround the cathode, as shown at 2l in Figure 8. A ceramic Wall being supercially reduced on the outside only or rendered completely conducting may serve also as a screen.

Figure 9 shows an amplifier tube which incorporates the basic idea underlying the present on the inside only or, after reduction, is treated on the outside by oxidation so that it will have an three current-supply leads or pins or ducts. Sealed in the bottom of the vessel are I1, Il, and Il. adapted to support the grid 2| and the filamentary cathode 22. In this ement, one oi the. current-supply leads to the cathode is substananode of the device.

The conducting ceramic material here disclosed will be found useful also for a great number of other discharge vessels, for instance, in X-ray and in cathode-ray tubes, or in photo-cells.

We claim:

1. In combination, an envelope insulating wall consisting of a higher metal oxide selected from the group consisting of titanium oxide. uranium oxide, or cadmium oxide and a ceramic insulating substance of the group consisting of quartz. magnesia, aluminum oxide or aluminum silicate, and a current conducting portion in said wall consisting of a lower oxide of the metal oxide selected from the first-mentioned group and one of said ceramic insulating substances.

2. 'I'he envelope of an electron discharge device comprising a wall of insulating ceramic material, a current conducting portion in said wall 3. An envelope comprising an insulating wall of ceramic material, a lead-in conductor sealed in said wall consisting of a mixture of said ceramic material and a conducting compound of titanium.

4. An electron discharge device comprising an insulating ceramic envelope wall of magnesia and semi-conducting ceramic ing an oxygen content between T10: and T10.

5. An electron discharge device comprising an insulating ceramic envelope wall of magnesia and a higher oxide of titanium oxide, and a semi-conducting ceramic lead-in conductor sealed gastight in said wall consisting of magnesia and a lower oxide of titanium oxide, said lead-in conductor extending inwardly to function as an electrode support and extending outwardly to function as a contact pin.

6. An article of the class described comprising a ceramic body, said body consisting of a higher metal oxide selected from the group consisting of titanium oxide, uranium oxide or cadmium oxide and a ceramic insulating substance of the group consisting of quartz, alumina, aluminum oxide or aluminum silicate, the surface of said MEYER. HANS PULFRICH. 

